UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles the Art of Diplomacy in Dakar the International Politics of Display at the 1966 Premier
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Art of Diplomacy in Dakar The International Politics of Display at the 1966 Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History by Lauren Elizabeth Taylor 2019 © Copyright by Lauren Elizabeth Taylor 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Art of Diplomacy in Dakar The International Politics of Display at the 1966 Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres by Lauren Elizabeth Taylor Doctor of Philosophy in Art History University of California, Los Angeles, 2019 Professor Steven D. Nelson, Chair This dissertation examines the displays of the visual arts that appeared in the 1966 Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (First World Festival of Negro Arts) with respect to mid-century international politics. In addition to performances of dance and music, film screenings, poetry readings, and a scholarly colloquium, the state-sponsored Festival, held in Dakar, Senegal, included two major art exhibitions. The first, titled l’Art Nègre: Sources, Évolution, Expansion (Negro Art: Sources, Evolution, Expansion), brought together more than 500 works of African art loaned from collections in nineteen countries. The other, called ii Tendances et Confrontations (Tendencies and Confrontations), was composed of contemporary art by African and African-descended artists working on the continent and throughout the diaspora. Drawing upon archival documents and photography from collections in Senegal, France, Switzerland, and the United States, my project examines the various diplomatic roles played by the visual arts at the event. On one hand, the arts reinforced symbolic or spiritual ties posited to be shared by all humankind. For example, both Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor and UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), a major financial and intellectual contributor to the Festival, considered intercultural exchange to be essential to achieving peace after the Second World War and decolonization. On the other hand, the arts acted as useful bartering chips; they were offered, withheld, rejected or praised in efforts to manipulate international politics amid the Cold War and alongside burgeoning nationalist movements accompanying African independence. By considering the relationship of the arts to international conceptualizations of black identity, continental African diplomacy, post-colonial Senegalese relations with France, and Cold War rivalries, my project unsettles an art-historical tendency to portray the artistic programming accompanying African independence as only reflective of nationalist, domestic politics. iii The dissertation of Lauren Elizabeth Taylor is approved. Andrew Apter George Thomas Baker Saloni Mathur Steven D. Nelson, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2019 iv This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of two remarkable women. Mary Nooter Roberts, a model of how, as a scholar and as a teacher, to lead with love, and Laura Marjorie Taylor, to whom I owe my name, my love for the arts, and my eternal gratitude. v Table of Contents Introduction 1 The Origins of the Event 3 Negritude, Universal Humanism, and African Socialism 6 The Coinciding Unrest 13 My Intervention 17 Structure of the Dissertation 23 Chapter One Roots and Routes: The Construction of the Musée Dynamique 27 An Appeal to UNESCO and the Decision to Build 30 The Dialogue of Universalism and Nationalism 40 Ancient Greece and Negritude 47 Dialogue and Dynamism 57 Chapter Two The Matter of Families: The Multiple Affiliations of l’Art Nègre: Sources, Évolution, Expansion 61 Enacting Partnership 67 Art and Peace 75 Literal and Symbolic Returns 83 A Demoiselle in Dakar 92 The Exhibition as Rendez-Vous 99 vi Chapter Three Exhibition as Mediator: On Nation and Rivalry in Tendances et Confrontations 101 Nationhood as Criteria 116 The Festival and the U.S.S.R. 122 The Participation of the United States 129 Conclusion 138 Conclusion 140 Figures 148 Works Cited 203 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1. The Supreme Court of Senegal, formerly the Musée Dynamique. .......................... 148 Figure 1.2. Elevation detail of blueprint sketches titled Grand Hall d'Exposition by architects Michel Chesneau and Jean Verola, dated April 6, 1963. ............................................................ 149 Figure 1.3. Architectural model of Musée Dynamique, date unknown. Photograph by Maya Brachar. ....................................................................................................................................... 150 Figure 1.4. Floorplan, ground floor. Detail of blueprint sketches titled Grand Hall d'Exposition by architects Michel Chesneau and Jean Verola, dated April 6, 1963. ...................................... 151 Figure 1.5. Floor plan, basement. Detail of blueprint sketches titled Grand Hall d'Exposition by architects Michel Chesneau and Jean Verola, dated April 6, 1963 ............................................ 152 Figure 1.6. Floorplan, Ground floor. Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel. ............................. 153 Figure 1.7. Cross-sections, Musée Dynamique in Neuchâtel...................................................... 153 Figure 1.8. Comparison of the floorplans of the Dakar (left) and Neuchâtel (right) Musées Dynamiques................................................................................................................................. 154 Figure 1.9. Top: Interior view, Neuchâtel Musée Dynamique, with exhibition titled Arts Précolombiens (1972). Bottom: Interior view, Dakar Musée Dynamique, with exhibition titled l’Art Nègre (1966). Photograph by Maya Bracher. .................................................................... 155 Figure 1.10. Avant-projet floorplan, Musée National de Nouakchott (1964) ............................. 156 Figure 1.11. Page from the UNESCO publication Museum, showing the Fibonacci sequence to be the inspiration for the UNESCO-designed poster printed in eight languages to promote the International Campaign for Museums. ....................................................................................... 156 Figure 1.12. Exterior, the Musée Dynamique wing of the Musée d'Ethnographie de Neuchâtel, showing the mural Les Conquêtes de l'Homme (1954) by Hans Erni. ....................................... 157 Figure 1.13. Hans Erni, Les conquêtes de l'homme (1954) ........................................................ 157 Figure 1.14. Downtown Dakar, 1966.......................................................................................... 158 Figure 1.15. Hale Woodruff, “Interchange” from The Art of the Negro (1950-1951). Trevor Arnett Hall, Atlanta, Georgia. ..................................................................................................... 158 Figure 1.16. The Musée Dynamique (1966) in Dakar, Senegal. Photographer unknown. ......... 159 Figure 1.17. Entrance to the Musée Dynamique, 1966. Photographed by Maya Bracher. ......... 159 Figure 1.18. The Jefferson Memorial (1943), Washington, DC. Photographer unknown. ........ 160 Figure 1.19. Brochure, “Senegal: Crossroads of the World, Door to Black Africa.” ................. 160 Figure 2.1. Route of Englebert Mveng on Spring 1965 mission to Central and Eastern Africa. 162 Figure 2.2. Origins of objects loaned to L'Art Nègre. ................................................................. 163 Figure 2.3. Exterior of the Musée Dynamique in Dakar, Senegal. Photo credited to “N’Diawar.” ..................................................................................................................................................... 164 Figure 2.4. Entrance to the Musée Dynamique. Photograph by Maya Bracher, 1966. ............... 164 Figure 2.5. Wall text upon entry to L'Art Nègre. Photograph by Maya Bracher, 1966. ............. 165 Figure 2.6. L’Art Nègre at the Musée Dynamique. ..................................................................... 165 Figure 2.7. Approximation of the thematic organization of l'Art Nègre. ................................... 166 Figure 2.8. African Negro Art (1935) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. ......... 167 Figure 2.9. Installation view, Masterpieces of African Art (1954-1955) at the Brooklyn Museum. ..................................................................................................................................................... 167 viii Figure 2.10. Installation view of l’Art Nègre, demonstrating the relative scale of African objects and Bracher’s photographs. Photograph by Maya Bracher, 1966. ............................................. 168 Figure 2.11. Overlapping objects on display in L'Art Nègre. Photograph by Maya Bracher, 1966. ..................................................................................................................................................... 168 Figure 2.12. Interior view of L'Art Nègre, showing two types of vitrines. ................................. 169 Figure 2.13. African Negro Art (1935) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. ....... 169 Figure 2.14. Langston Hughes and woman (possibly Marpessa Dawn) examine a manuscript in a tabletop vitrine labeled "Ethiopia" in the exhibition l’Art Nègre. .............................................. 170 Figure 2.15. Plans for vitrines (1965) by architects Chesneau and Verola. ................................ 171 Figure 2.16. Installation view, Arts Précolombiens